Montgomery County residents react to Nelson Mandela's death

In this Wednesday, July 18, 2012 file photo, former South African President Nelson Mandela celebrates his birthday with family in Qunu, South Africa. (Schalk van Zuydam/AP)

NORRISTOWN — Even from a distance the death of Nelson Mandela, the former president of South Africa and the slayer of apartheid in that country, resonates for Montgomery County residents.

Natasha Taylor-Smith, an assistant Montgomery County solicitor, said she was saddened by Mandela’s death on Thursday.

“When you have a person who is a light in every aspect of the word,” she said. “Someone who was willing to give up their family and their life so others could have a better life. That person is a light.”

The Cheltenham resident tried to attend Mandela’s 1993 award of the Liberty Medal with three friends, but they were unable to get in because it was too crowded.

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“I was in tears when he was released from prison. I had just moved to Hampton University, and the only thing I knew about apartheid was television shows. I met a friend from South Africa. She was very close to me,” Taylor-Smith said. “She would talk to me about her country and apartheid. I’m an emotional person. There were people in the hallway shouting about his release. I felt like a load was being lifted off me.

“It is incredible to think that someone born to humble circumstances can make such an impact on the world. I’m sure he never expected to have an impact that would change a nation.”

“It’s sad to hear that he died, Upper Merion Police Officer Keith Christian, the first black patrolman hired by the Upper Merion police department in 1996. “He was a role model for an entire generation.”

Christian recalled that he had participated in anti-apartheid demonstrations at the University of Pennsylvania in the 1970s when Mandela was organizing similar demonstrations in South Africa.

For Joseph Hadrick, of Norristown, a Montgomery County security guard, Mandela’s death was not a shock, though it was “definitely a loss.”

“He was a man who persevered for 27 years in prison and came out and did what he did,” Hadrick said. “He became president over the people who had him in prison.

“We need examples like him.”

Turea Hutson, a policy and planning assistant for the Montgomery County commissioners, said it was “nothing short of phenomenal to see someone who was so selfless. “

“It is rare for someone to give his freedom,” Hutson said.

Hutson recalled that Mandela had been offered a pardon at one point in his prison sentence and he refused because he wanted to make sure that apartheid would be ended.

“My parents taught me a lot. They were good about teaching us about social justice,” said Hutson, a recently elected Norristown Area School Board member. “We read ‘Cry the Beloved Country.’ It was something that was discussed in my childhood and early adulthood. The world has suffered a great loss. Nelson Mandela was one of a kind and he was an inspiration to many.”

Norristown Council member Linda Christian said Mandela’s death was expected.

“However, the impact was very strong given that I knew it was coming,” she said. “What he did on behalf of his country is one example of his character.

“He gave so much for a cause that was bigger than himself,” she said. “It was very admirable.”

Norristown Zoning Officer Jayne Musonye said that Mandela was “mythical.”

“I grew up partly in Kenya. When we were told about the great heroes of the African struggle for freedom he was one of those heroes,” she said. “His death was expected but still sad. It is almost the end of an era. He was a leader who challenged the minority white rule in South Africa.”

“Nelson Mandela is one of the greatest human beings of the 20th and early 21st Century,” said the Rev. John West III, the pastor of the Siloam Baptist Church. “He showed us the way to liberation from apartheid. He was one of the greatest leaders of liberation.”

Norristown Municipal Administrator Crandall Jones said he experienced segregation as a child growing up in the South.

“I clearly remember the ‘whites only’ and ‘coloreds only’ drinking fountains and the separate entrances for doctor’s offices,” Jones said. “Mandela lived through 27 years in jail. He changed the conscience of a nation.”

Jones said that he dealt with the injustice of segregation while Mandela faced more than two decades in prison and the struggle to overthrow apartheid in South Africa.

“What I faced wasn’t imprisonment and it wasn’t fear of death,” he said. “It was injustice.”

Jones said he remembered the joy he felt when Mandala was released from prison and the end of apartheid.

“It is definitely a loss for the community.” said Denise Ashe, executive director of the Montgomery County Opportunities Industrialization Center. “At least he was a free man when he got sick. He didn’t die in prison without his family.”